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Vanessa and Virginia

Published
Apr 2009
Main Genre
General Fiction General Fiction
Rating
Pages
213

About This Book

This novel of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell "captures the sisters' seesaw dynamic as they vacillate between protecting and hurting each other" (The Christian Science Monitor).

 

You see, even after all these years, I wonder if you really loved me. Vanessa and Virginia are sisters, best friends, bitter rivals, and artistic collaborators. As children, they fight for the attention of their overextended mother, their brilliant but difficult father, and their adored brother, Thoby. As young women, they support each other through a series of devastating deaths, then emerge in bohemian Bloomsbury, bent on creating new lives and groundbreaking works of art. Through everything—marriage, lovers, loss, madness, children, success and failure—the sisters remain the closest of co-conspirators. But they also betray each other.


In this lyrical, impressionistic account, written as a love letter and an elegy from Vanessa to Virginia, Susan Sellers imagines her way into the heart of the lifelong relationship between writer Virginia Woolf and painter Vanessa Bell. With sensitivity and fidelity to what is known of both lives, Sellers has created a powerful portrait of sibling rivalry, and "beautifully imagines what it must have meant to be a gifted artist yoked to a sister of dangerous, provocative genius" (Cleveland Plain Dealer).


 


"A delectable little book for anyone who ever admired the Bloomsbury group. . . . A genuine treat." —Publishers Weekly 

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Formats & Editions

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Paperback

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Paperback
First Edition Apr 2009 ISBN 151014744
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Trade Paperback
Apr 2010 Mariner ISBN 0547263384
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Hardcover

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Hardcover
May 2009 Houghton Mifflin ISBN 0151014744
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eBook

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eBook
Apr 2010 Houghton Mifflin ISBN B003K16PNC
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eBook
Apr 2010 Houghton Mifflin ISBN 0547393881
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Audio

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Audible
Dec 2009 Audible Studios ISBN B00316QK86
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